There will always be weeds to pull

1 Samuel 16:7b (NCV) “God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Yesterday turned out to be gorgeous spring day. Not too cold, not too hot… it was absolutely beautiful. After returning home from church, I spent most of the day pulling up weeds and cleaning flower beds in our back yard. While working, I took the opportunity to talk to Jesus and ask him to reveal those things in my life that I needed to work on “cleaning out.”

Each year I feel like the task of cleaning up our back yard gets to be more and more of a challenge because it’s usually the last area we focus on. At the first sign of spring, my husband typically gets out in the front yard and makes sure the beds are nice and clean and all unwanted growth is cleared away. This process typically takes a few weekends to accomplish so by the time we get to the back yard, the weeds have taken over and it seems to take forever to see actual process.

I had just started working on my second flower bed when God revealed the words of 1 Samuel 16:7 to me. “God doesn’t look at what people can see… God looks at the heart.” [paraphrase mine] Just like my yard, many more people see the front as they drive or walk by, but only a few see the back. As I thought about this verse in 1 Samuel, I thought about what people saw when they looked at me. People see who I was on the outside. But God doesn’t look at that, He looks at my heart.

I had to ask myself the question “what does my inside look like?” Since God looks at the condition of my heart, does it match my actions (outside appearances)? When people look at me, can they see a reflection of Jesus? I certainly hope so. I do recognize it’s a continual process. Just like the flower beds each spring, there will always be “weeds to pull” in my life.  Yesterday I was reminded that being shaped by Jesus is a continual process. The more Jesus chips away at the things in my life that are not of Him, the “cleaner” I become.

Praise God that He is continually at work in us, weeding out the bad so the beauty of His handiwork can be revealed.